Berkeley Superfund Research Program
Our program has been continuously funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) SRP since 1987. Through a multidisciplinary approach, we seek to understand the adverse effects of, and remediate, hazardous substances in the environment. In the current funding cycle, 2022-27, we are addressing six complex and intractable problems associated with hazardous waste sites identified in consultation with the Center’s key stakeholders and advisory boards, namely how to:
- Better assess risks to pregnant women, the fetus and young children;
- Protect disadvantaged communities from harmful exposures;
- Understand the totality of chemicals communities are exposed to;
- Account for interactions between mixtures of chemicals;
- Perform on site in situ remediation without depleting valuable resources or transporting contaminated soil to other locations; and,
- Destroy persistent chemicals that are resistant to remediation.
The Berkeley SRP consists of 4 projects (2 biological sciences and 2 engineering) and 4 supporting cores (Administration/Research translation, Community Engagement, Research Experience and Training Coordination, and Data Management and Analysis). It brings together domain experts from across the campus, collaborators from the broader scientific community, and stakeholders from government, industry, and environmental organizations. Contaminants under study include arsenic, chromium and other metals, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and other halogenated contaminants.
Over our 30 plus years of funding, we have had many successes including the development and global deployment of a steam-enhanced extraction technology to extract volatile organic compounds, development of the field of children's environmental health, sponsorship of the flame retardant dilemma program, generation of data to support California’s Human Right to Water Law, and development and application of the “key characteristics” approach to hazard assessment.